Episode 54: Perennialism

In this episode, Christopher and Riley discuss perennial wisdom and why we should study and incorporate the foreign, yet familiar, truths of all traditions into our own understanding and practice. Within the Church, we have a common misconception that the “fullness of the gospel” found in the “only true and living church” (D&C 1:30) gives us a claim to comprehensive, exclusive truth from God. As Riley and Christopher demonstrate, prophets ancient, modern, and contemporary have not seen things that way but instead have always actively encouraged Latter-day Saints to “seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom” (D&C 88:118) and have consistently recognized that God “bring[s] forth [His] word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth” (2 Ne. 29:7). It is up to each of us individually to bring forth in our own lives the words which the Lord has spoken to men and commanded them to write “both in the east and in the west” (2 Ne. 29:11) and “unto all nations of the earth” (2 Ne. 29:12). By encountering and wrestling with these perennial truths, we can come to a fuller understanding of our own beliefs and grow into a more excellent experience of God’s truth for all his children.